Today In History: China Clipper Starts Pacific Airmail
November 22nd: Today in 1935 a Pan American flying boat, the China Clipper set off to attempt the first cross pacific airmail delivery from Alameda California to Manila in the Philippines. The flight took nearly sixty hours of flying time but was successful with stops in Hawaii, Midway Island, Wake Island, and Guam before completing the trip and delivering thousands of pieces of mail. This is the classic flying boat made famous by Humphry Bogart and Hollywood as the height of adventure flying. Some great photos can be found here.
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:15 am
Wow, intresting that the navigator was Fred Noonan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Noonan I was living with a Bob Noonan who went on to become an AF pilot. My comment to him at one point was, “Well of course they made you a pilot, Nobody wants a Noonan as a navigator.”